On Our Table: Dinners of November, Part One
To sum up the theme of our meals from the first half of November, one only needs two words: Comfort. Food. Yes, the beginning of November was a stressful time and with every anxiety-filled day, most likely a comfort-food-focused meal followed. While the month has settled down greatly, although there is still a lot going on, I’m remembering our meals quite fondly. We will definitely consider repeating a few of these dishes as the temperatures drop and winter (soon) begins.
If you’re new around here, the below is a roundup of the dinners we cooked during the first half of November. I have included links to the cookbooks used as well as direct links to the key ingredient. Of course, please drop us a note if you have questions about any of the dishes. We are here to help you find a great dinner to cook at home; as always, they are entirely gluten free!
Let’s get to the food, shall we?
Fresh Fettuccine and pork Meatballs
There’s nothing more comforting than a hot bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. We took this dinner up a notch by using Fresh Republic’s fresh gluten free fettuccine (incredible). The flavor and texture is excellent!
We made the meatballs with ground pork, GF Italian breadcrumbs, spices, and one egg (to act as the binder). This classic dish will never go out of style and it was even better with the fresh fettuccine.
red coconut curry chicken
The best part of a great recipe is that you can easily substitute the main protein, make no changes to anything else in the recipe, and come out with a whole “new” dish.
The recipe for this curry, from Dinner by Melissa clark, featured shrimp, but we only had chicken in the fridge. No problem! It was still ridiculously delicious; in fact, it was just as amazing as the original. For the record, you could probably make this without meat and it would be just as yummy.
homemade pepperoni pizza
We are officially spoiled since purchasing No Gluten No Problem, Pizza. Homemade gluten free dough (following the recipes in the book) yields seriously scrumptious crusts that hold up perfectly in the oven - even with the piles of toppings I always add. This particular pie had extra mozzarella, red peppers, and plenty of pepperoni. Pizza perfection - made from scratch - at home!
fried rice with beef, asparagus, and mushrooms
My apologies for not offering a recipe; however, I am able to offer you a couple tips to making amazing fried rice. First, be sure to always use cold, cooked rice. This way it has dried significantly (you don’t want the moisture) and will work better for the “frying.”
Next up, have fun with the ingredients! I love to include a primary protein (ground meat works well, but strips of chicken or beef are great, too) and then plenty of veggies. The best part is that fried rice works with whatever you have available in the fridge. Fried rice is a year-round delight so include whatever is seasonal (or not). This one had ground beef, asparagus, mushrooms, and onion; scallions on top for garnish!
Finally, make sure to use gluten free soy sauce (Tamari) when seasoning the rice. Regular soy sauce is not gluten free.
red curry chicken meatballs
This dinner evolved after deciding we didn’t want a full-on bowl of curry, but we did want meatballs and we do love red curry. Ta da! A somewhat strange creation of red curry chicken meatballs came to life, which may be one of our best mash-ups of November.
For reference, these are made very similarly to any other basic meatball recipe, but they include a hearty spoonful (or two) of red curry paste. We like curry to be spicy so I may have had Seth add even more of the paste to the meatball mixture. Yum!
We served them over rice noodles and topped with chopped green onion. Not a very traditional meal, but a shockingly delicious one so I’m calling it a win.
panko-crusted chicken tenders and brussels sprouts
When in doubt, or stressed out, make chicken tenders for dinner. It’s a fool-proof meal that is easy to prepare and is always delicious and comforting. I love to make them using Aleia’s gluten free Panko so the crust is extra-crispy.
Pair these tenders with your favorite seasonal veggie to round out the plate. On this night we made sauteed Brussels sprouts with garlic and onion. A really straightforward, satisfying meal. Perfect to help calm down and de-stress.
asparagus and pepper risotto
Risotto is one of the best meals on Earth. A bold, very true statement. We don’t have it often, but when we do, I swoon from first bite to last. It takes all of my strength to leave some for leftovers the next day. I just love it. If you’re looking for an excellent “base” risotto recipe, then I strongly recommend using the one in the book Weeknight Gluten Free by Kristine Kidd.
We use this recipe most often and simply swap out the main ingredients for whatever we have on hand instead. The recipe uses kale and sausage, but this iteration featured asparagus, onion, and red Cubanelle peppers. And plenty of Parmesan. ;)
meat sauce and fusilli
On a similar path as the above-mentioned fettuccine and meatballs, another classic is this one: meat sauce and pasta. Hearty, happy, stress-reducing, and just plain delicious. Ours featured a ground meat mix (beef, pork, veal) as well as homemade tomato sauce (with mushrooms), and our favorite boxed GF pasta (fusilli) from Jovial Foods.
A box of pasta is the quickest dinner ever, so I always keep a few from Jovial in the cabinet. I’d say pantry, but we don’t have one. ;) Be sure to add freshly-chopped basil as the garnish - it looks nice and adds a good final flavor!
pepper and onion white pizza
What’s that? Another pizza to get us through the crazy-busy weeks of November? Yes! Of course. And this one was somewhat unique. We forgot to buy pizza sauce, whoops, so we made a white pizza. Ever had one? I loved it! The base had slices (lots of ‘em) of fresh mozzarella topped with sautéed peppers and onions. Then we finished it off with minced raw garlic (it cooked in the oven).
My goodness this was so delicious!! I’m not anti-tomato-sauce, but this white pizza made me acknowledge that a pizza can still have loads of flavor without it. I cannot wait to make a no-sauce-pizza again very soon. Yes, the dough was made from scratch. Get the cookbook, below.
Stir-fry chicken and snow peas
A great way to re-vamp a regular stir-fry is to cook it with a new sauce. Skip your usual seasonings and try something new! The best part is that you can use your favorite stir-fry ingredients, but the taste will be totally new. It’s like an entirely different dinner - almost. ;)
For this dish we made a classic stir-fry of chicken, snow peas, onion, and pepper and combined that with Fun Sauce, a recipe from the book Myers + Chang At Home by Joanne Chang and Karen Akunowicz. This book has plenty of recipes for full meals, but I love that they include individual sauce recipes which work with whatever ingredients you have on hand (be sure to use GF ingredients). How convenient?! And extremely delicious.
enjoy!
Mollie and Seth
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